Beachcombing - Clinging Jellyfish
Вставка
- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- Clinging Jellyfish are washing in along Mustang and North Padre Islands this week. These transparent, gelatinous creatures are hydrozoans and are common this time of year, but they are small. The max size is only half an inch. When they are washed up on the beach, they look like a clear blob of nothing sitting on the sand, but as we put these in a clear glass of water, they came alive! The details of their tentacles became apparent, and the X that goes across their bell is easy to see once in a clear glass. The X is actually their gonads. Some folks have been calling them fish eggs, others call them “Salps”, but that is a different species all together, and Salps contain an easy to see black spot which is their gastrointestinal system. Some other people have been calling them sea gooseberries, but those are comb jellies and these Clinging hydroids are a Cnidarian. These tiny hydrozoans prefer cooler water, so within the next few weeks, we likely won’t see these anymore until November. There are a couple of species of Clinging Jellyfish, which is why we have scientific names. The scientific name for this species is Nemopsis bachei. And no, they don’t sting. Watch this episode of Beachcombing with Jace Tunnell to learn more.
Interesting, and very cool. I need to take my kiddo out there and see them this weekend.
Great idea! Jace
Cool. Enjoyed learning. Great production.
Clinging Jellyfish are native to the Pacific Ocean. They were introduced to the eastern Atlantic Coast as early as 1894 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, but can be found from Maine to North Carolina. They are found in shallow bay waters and cling to vegetation, such as eel grass, during the day.
In the beginning of the video I thought how can you tell the difference by just looking at them in the sand. They the glass came out.
Do they sting at all to humans?
I saw these on a beach in massachusetts (definitely cool water) when I was swimming. They looked like little clear orbies. I thought maybe it had something to do with the ocean congealing some substance. There were thousands and thousands of them. Never saw that before.